peanut2110

Hi Snookie, I will be going down to Akld next Friday and heading back on the Saturday. If you do find the fish you want at HFF (it would have to be the Shore branch...) then I could bring him/her back up for you...

Ok we got the bloodworms back here today and they were still frozen thanks to being wrapped in lots of newspaper and stuck in a chilly bin with a cold pack! I have put the poor wee fellow in isolation and fed him some worms straight away which he took too very quickly and made short work of. I am assuming several small feedings a day would be the way to go? Re LFS Smidey, the one in town closed last year. A new one has opened up in Waipapa, across the road from the warehouse. It's a different lady running it and she doesn't have much in the way of fish or fish stuff as she admits it's not her thing! Of the 10 or so tanks, more than half of them are filled with goldfish and axolotls (sp?) so many in fact, I think she must have got a deal on the funny fish with feet! The only other place up here that does fish stuff is Kwan garden centre on the main drag in to town. They only stock goldfish but they have quite a good range of fish products - much better than the LFS anyway! Will keep you posted on the skinny loaches progress!

Great - I have a friend heading down there tomorrow - I will get her to pick some bloodworms up for me and give that a go. Fingers crossed he fattens up and gets better!

Thanks guys. Unfortunately I don't have a separate tank to put him in but I can definitely separate him from the others using the tank divider. Smidey where did you get the bloodworms from? Was it somewhere in Whangarei or did you buy them on line and get them shipped to you?

Yes I've noticed this one has a split in his tail and unlike the other three who are always together, the skinny one is nearly always on his own. Maybe it is more to do with their behaviour toward eachother rather than there being anything particularly wrong with the fish. I admit I hadn;t thought of that as I never see him being picked on or denied food. I do have a tank divider so perhaps I will try putting him in a section of the tank on his own tomorrow (when I clean the tank and do a water change) and see if we can improve the situation before it becomes terminal. It really is not nice seeing a fish essentially waste away like that... Thanks for the info and will let you know how he gets on. :-?

Bummer - not the answer I was looking for! Just realised I probably should have posted this under "Diseases"..... Mods please move this post if you think it is better there than here. Thanks.

Hi everyone, Of the four surviving clown loaches I rescued from our LFS just before christmas, 3 are thriving and doing really well - chubby, good colouration and very active. However, 1 of them looks like it has a very bad case of anorexia. It spends a lot of time hanging upside down in the back corners of the tank about a third of the way down from the waterline. Other times, it comes over to where you are and just eyeballs you through the glass. Speaking of which, its eyes look far too big for it! It's little mouth is always open and it looks very white (in and around the mouth that is). I have noticed no funny stuff emanating from the rear end, there is no evidence of ick and I'm kind of stumped as to what might be going on with it. I feed them all a mixed diet - frozen shrimp, brine shrimp and std tropical fish flakes, spirulina discs, shrimp pellets and fresh cucumber and courgette once every week or two. Has anyone else had a clown loach exhibit similar behaviour? I would really appreciate any helpful advice you might be able to give me. Cheers.

Really like the look of the tank - the pumice does look really good and you've got some interesting shaped pieces there... I had pumice in my tank for a while but it moved very easily and I got fed up keep re-arranging it when I cleaned the tank each week. If I could have found some really big bits and drilled them, I would have persevered but the biggest bits I could find were 15 - 20cm size blocks and they were difficult to stack and keep in the one place. Alanmin4304 - You keep them from floating by boiling the heck out of them (put a heavy brick like object on top of them whilst they are boiling to stop them floating) and then after 20 - 30 mins boiling you plunge them into a big bucket of cold water and put the same brick like object on top of them. You know they are ready when you take the brick away and they don't float to the surface. If they do, you have to start over and boil them for longer the next time. Some of my bits flatly refused to sink no matter what I did! With regards water chemistry - there was no affect whatsoever...

Wow your new tank sounds like it will be awesome! Are you building it yourself? Can't wait to see the finished product - make sure you post lots of pics! :bounce:

Hi Smidey, The boss in my tank is the baenschi male as well. It used to be the Maleri Red but as soon as the Baenschi got to a similar phycisal size the dynamics changed very quickly. He also started bossing the others around a lot so I have actually pulled him from the tank and stuck him in one of his own for a while with my newly acquired clown loaches. It's amazing how much the other fish are thriving without him in there! Once I get my 400ltr up and running in another couple of months, I will put them all back in together and I am hoping the bigger tank will mean less bossing about!

Male Malawi peacocks - beautiful colours and for the most part, pretty placid

Just a thought but has anyone respectfully suggested the fish might need worming? They may have no idea what's going on and might be quite thankful for the heads up...

Sounds like a good idea ryanjury. Would you be willing to share your fish wormer recipe? I would like to make sure my fish stay nice and healthy... Cheers

Hey Tropheus, I'm curious, how do you know when fish need worming? I've only been in the game a couple of years but I've not heard of fish needing worming before... Re the big tank at BFC, bummed I didn't think to take the kids there over christmas. We were in Auckland for a week and the tank sounds awesome! Nevermind, maybe next time... :roll:

Hi everyone, Just thought I would let you know that all four clown loaches are doing very well and showing no signs of ick or distress... Given that it will be a week tomorrow since I acquired them, do you think they are out of the woods yet or could they still be susceptible to ick? After I read all your helpful advice, I increased the temperature to 27 degrees (altho it creeps up to 27.9 on very warm days...) and I added a tablespoon of salt to the tank when I did a partial water change on Monday in addition to the three tablespoons I had put in the previous week. I am about to do another second partial water change today and I will add 1 more tablespoon with the fresh water. Should I keep the temp at 27 degrees from now on or do you think I should turn it down a bit? They are chowing down on frozen shrimp, algae discs, fresh zucchini, shrimp pellets and whatever the big cichlid doesn't eat that falls to the bottom. They are quite playful and two of them come out and scurry around early in the morning and again in the evening. The other two aren't quite so brave and they spend their time playing around the rocks and the driftwood. Often all four can be seen chopping and changing position to look out from between a big rock stack - they are so funny! They are very entertaining to watch and so quick! I think I am going to enjoy watching them grow up! Thanks again for all your help with these guys last weekend - I'm sure it made all the difference. Merry christmas and a safe and happy holiday season to you all! :bounce:

Thanks everyone! I am slowly raising the temp on the tank - currently at 26.8 degrees - want to do it slowly for the sake of my Baenschi... The four of them look well this morning - 3 of them hang out together in a group and the other 1 is always off on his own somewhere! Haven't seen them eat yet but I'm sure they are... Will leave it a day or two before I do the next water change so as not to stress them anymore. Many thanks for the offer to re-house Jim but I am quite fond of this little troop already and if they hang in there and survive, then I think I will hold on to them for the long haul. Once we are into our new house next year, they can all go into my new 400ltr tank together with my other peacock cichlids. Cheers again!

Great, thanks Ryan. Have been reading up on the increased temp/salt dosing for treatment and the latter seems to be recommended at 2-3 tbsp per 5 gallons. Can you remember what you dosed at as I don't want to kill them! I also don't know if they have the dreaded ich yet so I guess I should wait to make sure until I add any more salt (put 3 tbsp in last weekend when I did a water change). Good to hear you have kept loaches with cichlids before - there seems to be much debate about whether one could or should keep the two together...

Just to update you all - the 5th clown loach died... The 4 that are left seem quite happy in the tank and are all hanging out together under a piece of driftwood. When I did a water change last week, I added tonic salt to the aquarium and I also added more filter media to the Fluval cannister filter together with some new activated carbon. Is there anything else I can do to reduce the chance of whitespot occurring or is the bubbler and the higher temp really it? Also, I still don't know what these guys like to eat (obviosuly nothing til tomorrow...) I have all sorts of food for the cichlids from spirulina to brine shrimp flake, floating cichlid sticks and pellets to plankton. Will keep you psted on their progress... Fingers crossed!

Thanks for your advice. The new LFS is at Waipapa - 5 mins outside Kerikeri. They admitted they didn't know much about tropical fish but wanted to get them in for people who might want to buy them for christmas (assuming they have any left for people to buy this time next week that is!) I have just tested the water in the bag and it is the same ph as the water in the tank now so I will go release them once I am done typing this. The 5th one I thought was dead, is not quite - yet. He is very pale and spending his time on his side or upside down so I don't hold out much hope. Should I release him and cross my fingers or keep him in the bag until he either comes right or dies? With regards to the ph, I have read before that they are quite happy in a ph of 7.6 although it is starting to get to the upper end of their tolerance. Hopefully it won't prove the proverbial "nail in the coffin" for them although I know if I had left them where they were they would have not survived another day... I will go and turn the temp up now and will also put a bubbler in. If they do get white spot, what should I do to treat it? And will it hurt the adult male Aulonocara Baenschi - the only cichlid in that tank? Look forward to your replies and thank again for your helpful suggestions so far...

Hi everyone, I just went to my new LFS which opened today and unfortunately they dumped a whole lot of tropical fish into tanks they only just set up yesterday with no borrowed filter media. :-? Upshot is I fished out 3 dead tetras and 3 dead clown loaches for them and then couldn't turn my back on the 5 clown loaches that were left, all of which were so pathetic when I caught them, they all but climbed into the net themselves! They are about 3.5cms long so I don't know how old that would make them? I have never owned clown loaches before (but always planned too!) and would appreciate any advice you can give me about what they like to eat and what sort of living conditions they like. I have 2 x 160 litre tanks with 3 peacock cichlids in one and the bully baenschi in the other so I have plenty of room for 5 baby clown loaches. Actually make that 4, looking at the bag here, I think one of them has already died... I am still floating them and adding a little of my water every 20 mins or so. The ph of my water in both tanks is 7.6 and I have aragonite sand as a substrate with rocks and some driftwood for hiding in. Any helpful advice you can give me to help these poor fish survive would be really appreciated. Thanks!

That's an awesome range of peacocks! :bounce: I come down to Akld periodically so if its Ok with you, I'll pm you before I head down to see if you have any males available... It's been hard finding more peacocks for the tank - very pleased you are producing so many and in such abundant numbers! :bounce: Sorry to hear about your babies that got boiled...

I would be interested in some males... What peacocks have you got exactly? Ten different types is six more than I have and I am keen to get a good mix for my male display tank! :bounce:

What fish have you got coming exactly? Am interested in the mix...

Hi there, don't know you guys personally but I know babies and she's a real beauty. Congratulations to you both! Oh and by the way, be prepared for lots of interrupted nights sleep over the next few years - everything from nightmares to illness to dying of thirst to raiding the kitchen for midnight snacks and just wondering in to say "hello daddy"... You gotta love them!

Thanks for all your comments. The chilumba is starting to colour up a bit but he tends to get out of the way if he sees the baenschi coming so is usually left alone. Whether he will colour up fully with the baenshi around I don't know. The maleri was the leader until the baenschi got bigger and then he challenged him and won. The maleri is looking a little ragged around the edges if you know what I mean as the baenshi has obviously been nipping him a bit too. He is still eating though so I guess that's a good sign. With the bigger tank, I did have the same idea that Ryan suggested and was thinking of dividing it in two but then I thought I could also put in more fish and that would possibly help the victim(s) to get lost in the crowd. I have an O. Lithobates growing up with a friend in Akld and also some baby dragonblood peacocks. I want to be sure I only put boys in the tank so until they are sexable, I will leave them out. My friend tells me the O. Lithobates is a bit on the stroppy side, so maybe he would help change the dynamics? I realise with these fish, perfect peace is never likely to be achieved but I would like to ensure no one fish is badly hassled on a continuous basis. I will try putting the rocks back in and dividing the territories up more - the baenschi has got worse since I took them out (which I only did yesterday). The rocks were all in a pile together before so I will make two or three separate clumps. Re the comment about adding another yellow male, I thought this was an absolute no-no in the all male tank as the two most like eachother would fight all the time? I'm willing to give anything a go if it is likely to help the situation but I don't want to risk having to re-house a bunch of fish if the experiment fails. Here in Kerikeri it is very hard to find homes for cichlids! Thanks for all your suggestions and if you have any more, keep them coming! I will let you know how I get on with the re-arranged rock configuration...